Author's archive
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Twits on Twitter X Offenders
0
It looks like the hood has slipped off.
The Rule of Lawless 0
Form the Youtube page:
Seth takes a closer look at MAGA allies insisting there is no such thing as international law as global outcry over the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela and its threats towards Greenland intensifies.
Artificial? Yet. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Stultifying? At Psychology Today Blogs, Eric Solomon argues that AI “pushes anxious minds toward safety, shrinking curiosity and original thought” (emphasis added).
Follow the link for his reasoning.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
. . . and another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” exposes a child to a portable phallus.
Yeah, I’m sure it was accidental on the part of the child . . . .
Furrfu.
American Stasi 0
The EFF warns us that ICE is ramping up its surveillance–and not just of immigrants. From their report:
- ICE had scanned the driver’s license photos of 1 in 3 adults.
- ICE had access to the driver’s license data of 3 in 4 adults.
- ICE was tracking the movements of drivers in cities home to 3 in 4 adults.
- ICE could locate 3 in 4 adults through their utility records.
- ICE built its surveillance dragnet by tapping data from private companies and state and local bureaucracies.
- ICE spent approximately $2.8 billion between 2008 and 2021 on new surveillance, data collection and data-sharing programs.
Follow the link for the full report.
And, in more news of the American Stasi . . . .
Copywrongs 0
I have noted before in these electrons that, since my earliest days on Usenet and BBSs (that’s “bulletin board systems”–look it up), I have been amazed at how persons willingly believe stuff that they read on a computer screen, when they would not believe the same stuff if it happened before their eyes. Now, with the advent of AI chatbots, we’ve progressed to a point at which persons willingly believe stuff they hear from their computers when they wouldn’t believe the same stuff if it happened before their eyes.
Bloomberg’s Catherine Thorbecke thinks that, as AI spreads, it’s time for the companies that are manufabricating it to come clean about what they are using for their “training” data. She asks
The answer appears to be “yes” to all of the above. But we can’t know for sure because the companies building these systems refuse to say.
The secrecy is increasingly indefensible as AI systems creep into high-stakes environments like schools, hospitals, hiring tools and government services. The more decision-making and agency we hand over to machines, the more urgent it becomes to understand what’s going into them.
I commend the entire article to your attention.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Mary Trump wonders if Little Marco is going after the Calibri font because it’s “too woke” and stumbles over a rhyme from the past. She moves on to look at the larger implications of his pettiness and what it says about Republican family values.
______________________
*Mark Twain.
Misdirection Play, a Notion of Immigrants Dept. 0
Via the Las Vegas Sun, Sal Rodriguez discusses that furor over welfare fraud in Minnesota. He notes that, though Somali immigrants are being targeted by the Trump maladministration, (emphasis added)
The founder of the organization, a white American named Aimee Bock, was convicted of her crimes. Dozens of others involved in the scheme have pled guilty. Most of those involved were of Somali background.
So why, one wonders, are Somalis getting all the blame publicity? Rodriguez suggests that the answer is quite simple:
Methinks the full article. is worth your while.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another random act of politeness.
Yet another child in a hospital.
Yet another day in the NRA’s gunpowder pit of politeness.
No Rooming at the Inn 0
These days, you hear a lot in the news about the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution. You don’t hear much about the Third Amendment, which was written in reaction to the British forcing colonials to take British soldiers into their homes back in colonial times. It reads in its entirety
At Above the Law, Joe Patrice predicts that it might be a thing because of the actions of the Trump maladmistration.
Gunboat Diplomacy 0
Michael in Norfolk argues that Donald Trump wants to bring back “gunboat diplomacy” (though he also suspects Trump has no idea what the term means). He notes, almost in passing, what I suspect to be the underlying reason:
It’s all about strutting about like a bully and monarch and demanding nation’s bend to his wishes.
Party Planning 0
At AL.com, John Archibald reminds us that, five years ago today, Donald Trump’s supporters invaded the Capitol, wreking havoc, distroying papers, soiling desks, and attacking police, in an attempt to overthrow the election. Many were convicted ot serious crimes of violence and later pardoned by Donald Trump as he began is second term.
Archibabld asks, which of them would you invite into your own home?
Follow the link to choose.